Rose Glass’s ‘Love Lies Bleeding’ Is a Suspenseful Sapphic Story Surrounding Sex, Smokes, & Steroids

English director and screenwriter Rose Glass returns to the big screen following her 2019/2020 feature filmmaking debut, Saint Maud. Through her new film, Love Lies Bleeding, Glass continues to pull from her work in dramatic and sensual narratives as well as psychological thrillers, exhibiting the seriousness she holds for the craft. Whereas Saint Maud runs at a slower pace and focuses on one character, Love Lies Bleeding is upbeat in its venture into late-1980s love and addiction.

Glass Shatters Expectations

If any up-and-coming filmmaker can bring a sense of gravity to the craft, then it must be Glass. She directs the story with sincerity by bringing together vital cinematic elements, all of which are flawless. Glass reunites with Saint Maud cinematographer Ben Fordesman and co-writes the A24/Film 4 title with Weronika Tofilska, the latter of whom Glass’s The Only Water short pays thanks.

Fordesman captures the uneasy frames of Lou (Kristen Stewart; Spencer) and Jackie (Katy O’Brian; The Mandalorian), even from the moment the two women meet and are approached by men. Their love blends almost immediately with addiction and obsession as the audience sees close-ups of them instantly clicking. Intimacy coordinators Christine McHugh and Rebekah Wiggins help Fordesman and the actors enter the sexually spicier moments between the two — just one highlight of Love Lies Bleeding‘s merits.

Fordesman also captures other shots, such as bright yellow egg yolks in a trash can, dark smoke rising from the cracks of a desert in the daytime, police officers looking down the crack at the burning car stuck there, or the vertigo effects of Jackie either in the Crater Gym jumping rope or on stage flexing her muscles alongside other women bodybuilders. If those are not enough, then the starry scenes truly provide splashes of fantasy to the narrative, to which Glass is no stranger.

1980s Aesthetic and Music

The filmmaker understands how to piece together a grasping romantic thriller. It has the potential to be placed at the top of the list with sapphic classics, Ridley Scott’s Thelma & Louise and the Wachowskis’ Bound, as well as Tony Scott’s neo-noir, True Romance. Thanks to costume designer Olga Mill, Jackie’s colorful jacket that she sports in some scenes is attention-grabbing. Moreover, the eighties hairstyling and makeup are quite a believable sight, even if some of the men appear atrocious.

Production designer Katie Hickman’s set pieces maintain the film’s enticing perspective. Lou’s Mi Casa Apartments building and J.J. (Dave Franco; Day Shift) and Beth’s (Jena Malone; Rebel Moon) house are both unique stages for all the action. Jackie’s Vegas scene is nightmarish, especially when it calls upon the worst to happen to her, personally. Stunt coordinator Derick Pritchard has a hand in the various sequences in Love Lies Bleeding that are to be admired.

Music composer Clint Mansell scores a brilliant soundtrack, including the starry tunes at Lou’s apartment or the badass retro piece as the women have sex in the apartment. Supervisor Simon Astall and editor Rachel Park also throw in a few artists, including Nona Hendryx, Gina X Performance, and Colourbox, to show how Jackie makes her entrance and stays there, to beautiful effects.

Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian’s Love and Other Drugs

The dynamic between Kristen Stewart’s Lou and Katy O’Brian’s Jackie is the best relationship in a sapphic film since Bound. Glass does not shy away from portraying how much of a reverie comes to life the women’s chemistry is. The montage in the first act speeds that up. However, that is no detriment to the story because the real inner and external conflicts arrive afterward.

There is a merit-worthy juxtaposition in the cravings they have, whether separate or together. Lou keeps an anti-nicotine radio recording on as a means to put down cigarettes once and for all. She has flashes of her past, working in her father’s line of business: crime. Meanwhile, Jackie develops an addiction to steroid injections as introduced by Lou. This complements her already-fixated goal of entering the Vegas bodybuilding competition.

Together, their relationship is rocky but not unreasonable, as this type of thing has played out before. The rhetoric is present, mainly in the Crater Gym set piece, where gym members are shown signs such as “Only Losers Quit”, so it’s interesting to see how such words hold specific meaning.

Performances and Character Developments

Kristen Stewart’s performance as Lou is riveting, as is Katy O’Brian’s as Jackie. Both actors achieve perfection, even with their masterful one-liners: “She doesn’t have to tell me shit; I have eyes” or “What is this place?” Lou possesses charisma about her, but it is accompanied by rashness. This results in having strayed away from her family environment while still sticking close to her sister. It shows this dependency on roleplay in a life of crime even though she should not be. Conversely, there is a hint of black comedy in what she wound up doing when some people are killed. Regardless, that is commendable.

By comparison, Jackie starts the movie as sweet, but the moment a man lays a hand on her, all bets are off. Throughout Glass’s film, she maintains heart and spirit. Her scene on stage in Vegas is wicked, calling back to Saint Maud‘s protagonist and her obsession with God. O’Brian makes this lead role her own, and that alone needs to be celebrated. From the moment she is seen on the film’s official poster, Jackie has been solidified as one of the loveliest characters in the genre.

Ed Harris’s (My Dead Friend Zoe) performance as Lou Sr. might be an underrated role. However, he can be a scene-stealer in the final act, so do not let that ugly hairstyle be a distraction. His character is a third party in the narrative for power dynamics, such as when he confronts Lou at a hospital vending machine about her sloppy temperament… or better yet, when Lou is on a pressing phone call with him, which I believe is the film’s climax. His line about his wife/ Lou’s mother at the end is well-delivered. If read by anyone else, it might not have been as feasible.

Final Thoughts on Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding

Glass and Tofilska’s screenwriting is pristine. Granted, there are a couple of scenes that could have been written differently. For one, a supporting character should have been killed almost straightaway just for blabbing their mouth away. The two protagonists within the open space of Lou Sr.’s mansion tennis court would have left room for either or both to be shot dead. Yet, for some reason, the plot requires that their fates do not lie here and for good purpose.

Overall, Love Lies Bleeding is faultless work. From the appearances to the music to the performances to the writing, not to mention Jena Malone and Anna Baryshnikov in supporting roles—and they both deserve far more screen time than allotted. The film pays respect to its predecessors in the genre by committing to the next ideal form of storytelling. Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian deserve all the praises, as do Glass and Tofilska, for making this work!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars